The social support networks of elderly people in Slovenia during the Covid-19 pandemic

Cugmas, Marjan (avtor), Ferligoj, Anuška (avtor), Kogovšek, Tina (avtor), Batagelj, Zenel (avtor)

Population ageing requires society to adjust by ensuring additional types of services and assistance for elderly people. These may be provided by either organized services and sources of informal social support. The latter are especially important since a lack of social support is associated with a lower level of psychological and physical well-being. During the Covid-19 pandemic, social support for the elderly has proven to be even more crucial, also due to physical distancing. Therefore, this study aims to identify and describe the various types of personal social support networks available to the elderly population during the pandemic. To this end, a survey of Slovenians older than 64 years was conducted from April 25 to May 4, 2020 on a probability web-panel-based sample (n = 605). The ego networks were clustered by a hierarchical clustering approach for symbolic data. Clustering was performed for different types of social support (socializing, instrumental support, emotional support) and different characteristics of the social support networks (i.e., type of relationship, number of contacts, geographical distance). The results show that most of the elderly population in Slovenia has a satisfactory social support network, while the share of those without any (accessible) source of social support is significant. The results are particularly valuable for sustainable care policy planning, crisis intervention planning as well as any future waves of the coronavirus.

• Jezik: Angleški jezik
• Vrsta gradiva: Članek v reviji
• Tipologija: 1.01 - Izvirni znanstveni članek
• Organizacija: FDV - Fakulteta za družbene vede
• Status publikacije: Objavljeno
• Različica publikacije: Objavljena publikacija
• Datum objave: 03.03.2021
• Leto izida: 2021
• Št. strani: 16 str.
• Številčenje: Vol. 16, iss. 3
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-136399
• UDK: 303:364.4-053.9(497.4)
• ISSN pri članku: 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0247993
• COBISS.SI-ID: 54155523
• Datum objave v RUL: 29.04.2022

Gradivo je del revije

• Naslov: PloS one
• Založnik: PLOS
• ISSN: 1932-6203
• COBISS.SI-ID: 2005896

Licence

• Licenca: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Priznanje avtorstva 4.0 Mednarodna
• Povezava: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.sl
• Opis: To je standardna licenca Creative Commons, ki daje uporabnikom največ možnosti za nadaljnjo uporabo dela, pri čemer morajo navesti avtorja.
• Začetek licenciranja: 29.04.2022

Projekti

• Financer: ARRS - Agencija za raziskovalno dejavnost Republike Slovenije
• Številka projekta: P5-0168-2015
• Naslov: Družboslovna metodologija, statistika in informatika